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Hiddenconnections Summary of Capra's Book
Hiddenconnections Summary of Capra's Book
that the philosophical school of deep ecology which does not separate humans from
nature (i.e. that humans and their social life evolved out of the biological world) and
that recognises the intrinsic values of all human beings is an ideal philosophical and
spiritual context for the new scientific paradigm.
that his extension of the systems approach to the social domain explicitly includes the
material world because
the key challenges of the new century for social scientists, natural scientists and
everyone else, will be to build ecologically sustainable communities, designed in such a
way that their technologies and social systems their material and social structures
do not interfere with natures inherent ability to sustain life.
That the design principles of our future social institutions must be consistent with the
principles of organisation that nature has evolved to sustain the web of life.
all cells include proteins and nucleic acids ( DNA& RNA) which a) form part of the cell
structure and b) are enzymes which catalyse the metabolic processes and the
enzymes in turn are specified by genes i.e. cellular processes are genetically
controlled which provides stability:
DNA is also responsible for self replication which is a crucial characteristic of life.
the molecular structure of cells is not sufficient to define life need to also look at the
metabolic processes i.e. the patterns of relationships between the molecules i.e.
focus on whole rather than on parts.
Identity the cell boundary (membrane) discriminates between the system or the
self, and it environment. Within this boundary there is a network of chemical
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reactions. Membranes are a universal characteristic of life and display the same type of
structure throughout the living world they are always active, opening and closing,
keeping certain substances out and letting others in and expelling waste. They are
semi-permeable to keep the proportion of substances in balance for the metabolic
processes i.e. the membrane maintains the distinct identity of the cell and protects it
from harmful environmental influences.
A key insight of the new understanding of life is that biological forms and functions
are not simply determined by the genetic blueprint but are also emergent
properties.
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key property of living systems. This has been recognised as the dynamic origin of
learning, development and evolution. Life constantly reaches out into novelty.
Catalysts and catalytic networks make possible reactions that would not be possible
without them. Catalysis increased complexity. With the help of catalytic reactions,
beneficial chance events, either from external or internal environment, are enhanced
increasing complexity further from equilibrium emergence/creativity.
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its connectivity with every sense perception. Thus living systems are autonomous the environment only triggers the structural changes: it does not specify or
direct them.
Structural coupling, as defined by Maturana and Varela, establishes a clear difference
between the ways living and nonliving systems interact with their environments. For
example, when you kick a stone, it will react to the kick according to a linear chain of
cause and effect. Its behaviour can be calculated by applying the basic laws of Newtonian
mechanics. When you kick a dog, the situation is quite different. The dog will respond
with structural changes according to its own nature and (nonlinear) pattern of
organisation. The resulting behaviour is generally unpredictable.
As a living organism responds to environmental influences with structural changes, these
changes will in turn alter its future behaviour. In other words, a structurally coupled
system is a learning system. Continual structural changes occur in response to the
environment and consequently continuing adaptation, learning and development are
key characteristics of the behaviour of all living beings.
As it keeps interacting with its environment, a living organism will undergo a sequence of
structural changes. At any point the structure of the organism is a record of previous
structural changes and thus of previous interactions. In other words, all living being have
a history. Living structure is always a record of prior development.
Now, since the organism records previous structural changes, and since each structural
change influences the organisms future behaviour, this implies that the behaviour of the
living organism is dictated by its structure. In Maturanas terminology, the behaviour of
living systems is structure-determined.
This notion sheds new light on the age-old philosophical debate about freedom and
determinism. According to Maturana, the behaviour of a living organism is determined,
but rather than being determined by outside forces, it is determined by the organisms
own structure a structure formed by a succession of autonomous structural changes.
Hence the behaviour of the living organism is both determined and free. By
specifying which perturbation from the environment will trigger change, the living system
brings forth a world.
Cognition = bringing forth a world through the process of living To live is to know
i.e. mind/cognition = the process of life
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Human Nature
The Santiago Theory has shown that all levels of life, mind and matter, process and
structure, are inseparably connected.
Recent research in cognitive science has confirmed and refined this view by showing how
the process of cognition evolved into forms of increasing complexity together with the
SUMMARY The Hidden Connections, Fritjof Capra, 2002 Chapters 1-4
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corresponding biological structures. As the ability to control precise hand and tongue
movements developed, language, reflective consciousness and conceptual thought
evolved in the early humans as part of ever more complex processes of communication.
All these are manifestations of the process of cognition, and at each new level they involve
corresponding neural and bodily structures. As the recent discoveries in cognitive
linguistics have shown, the human mind, even in its most abstract manifestations, is not
separate from the body but arises from it and is shaped by it.
This research makes it clear that the cognitive and emotional lives of animals and humans
differ only by degree; that life is a great continuum in which differences between species
are gradual and evolutionary. Cognitive linguists have fully confirmed this evolutionary
conception of human nature. In the words of Lakoff and Johnson, Reason, even in its
most abstract form, makes use of, rather than transcends, our animal nature. Reason is
thus not an essence that separates us from other animals; rather, it places us on a
continuum with them.
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human social life. However, these diverse characteristics of social reality all share a basic
common feature, which provides a natural link to the systems view of life.
This link is self-awareness/reflective consciousness which emerged, together with
language, conceptual thought and the social world of organised relationships, culture and
technology. The understanding of social reality is inextricably linked to an
understanding of reflective consciousness.
More specifically, our ability to hold mental images of material objects and events
seems to be a fundamental condition for the emergence of key characteristics of
social life. Being able to hold mental images enables us to choose among several
alternatives, which is necessary to formulate values and social rules of behaviour.
Conflicts of interest, based on different values, are at the origin of relationships of power.
Our intentions, awareness of purposes and designs and strategies to reach identified goals
all require the projection of mental images into the future.
Capra postulates that the systemic understanding of life can be extended to the social
domain by adding the perspective of meaning to the other three perspectives on life. He
uses meaning as short-hand for the inner world of reflective consciousness. A full
understanding of social phenomena, then, must involve the integration of four
interconnected perspectives form, matter, process and meaning.
MEANING
FORM
PROCESS
MATTER
Integrating the four perspective means recognising that each contributes significantly to
the understanding of social phenomenon. For example, we shall see that culture is
created and sustained by a network (form) of communications (process), in which
meaning is generated. The cultures material embodiments (matter) include artefacts and
written texts, through which meaning is passed on from generation to generation.
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BUT we should not expect to transfer our understanding of the networks material
structure directly from the biological to the social domain.
A cellular network is a non linear pattern of organisation and a social network is a non
linear pattern of organisation concepts such as feedback or emergence are likely to be
relevant in the social context, but the nodes and links of the network are not biochemical.
Social networks are networks of communication involving symbolic language, cultural
constraints and relationships of power and so on.
Networks of Communications
Question: Are they autopoietic - self-organising/ self-generating?
Luhmann has developed a theory of social autopoiesis. Communications are the elements
of social networks. They are produced and reproduced by a network of communications
and cannot exist outside that network.
Networks of communication are self generating. Each communication creates thoughts
and meaning giving rise to further communication thus producing generative
communications. As they recur in multiple feedback loops they produce a shared context
of meaning that is sustained by further communications.
Through this shared context of meaning, individuals acquire identities as members of the
social network and this shared context of meaning generates a network boundary. This is
not a physical boundary but a boundary of expectations, confidentiality and loyalty which
is maintained and renegotiated by the network itself.
Human communication has a dual nature and involves:
a)
b)
b)
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The behaviour of living organisms is constrained but not determined by outside forces i.e.
self organising behaviour is not imposed by the environment but is established by the
system itself. More specifically, behaviour is determined by its own structure as
structure is formed by a succession of structural changes. The autonomy of living
systems must not be confused with independence. Living organisms are not isolated from
their environment. They interact continually, but the environment does not determine
their organisation.
At the human level we experience this self determination as freedom to act according to
our own choices and decisions. To experience these as our own means they are
determined by our nature, including past experiences and genetic heritage. To the extent
we are not constrained by human relationships of power, our behaviour is self determined
and therefore free.
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Cultural identity also reinforces the closure of the network by creating a boundary of
meaning and expectations that limits the access of people and information to the network.
Thus the social network is engaged in communication with a cultural boundary which its
members continually recreate and renegotiate. This situation is not unlike that of the
metabolic network of a cell, which continually produces and recreates a boundary the
cell membrane that confines it and gives it its identity. However, there are some crucial
differences between cellular and social boundaries. Social boundaries are not necessarily
physical boundaries but boundaries of meaning and expectations. They do not literally
surround the network, but exist in a mental realm.
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production of other components. This idea can be extended to the social domain by
identifying the relevant living networks as networks of communications.
In the social realm, the concept of organisation takes on an additional meaning. Social
organisations, such as businesses or political institutions, are systems whose patterns of
organisation are designed specifically to distribute power. These formally designed
patterns are known as organisational structures and are visually represented by the
standard organisational charts. They are ultimately rules of behaviour that facilitate
decision-making and embody relationships of power.
In biological systems, all structures are material structures. Social systems produce
nonmaterial as well as material structures. The processes that sustain a social network
are processes of communication, which generate shared meaning and rules of behaviour
(the networks culture), as well as a shared body of knowledge. The rules of behaviour
whether formal or informal, are called social structures and may be documented. They are
also embodied in artefacts, works of art, technology and other material structures.
Indeed, the activities of the individuals in social networks specifically include the organised
production of material goods. All these material structures are created for a purpose and
according to some design. They are embodiments of the shared meaning generated by
the societys networks of communications.
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It is common to hear that people in organisations resist change. In reality, people do not
resist change; they resist having change imposed on them. Being alive, individuals and
their communities are both stable and subject to change and development, but their
natural change processes are very different from the organisational changes designed by
re-engineering experts and mandated from the top.
To resolve the problem of organisational change, we need to understand the natural
change processes that are embedded in all living systems then we can begin to design the
processes of organisational change accordingly and to create human organisations that
mirror lifes adaptability, diversity and creativity.
Capra proposes a systemic solution to the problem of organisational change.
Understanding human organisations in terms of living systems, i.e. in terms of complex
nonlinear networks, is likely to lead to new insights into the nature of complexity, and
thus help us deal with the complexities of todays business environment. It will also help
us design business organisations that are ecologically sustainable, since the principles of
organisation of eco-systems, which are the basis of sustainability, are identical to the
principles of organisation of all living systems. Understanding human organisations as
living systems is one of the critical challenges of our time.
Over the last few decades a new economy has emerged that is shaped decisively by
information and communication technologies, and in which the processing of information
and creation of scientific and technical knowledge are the main sources of productivity. In
todays economy, both management and technology are critically linked to knowledge
creation. Increases in productivity do not come from labour, but from the capacity to
equip labour with new capabilities, based on new knowledge. Thus knowledge
management , 'intellectual capital' and organisational learning have become critical to
organisational success.
According to the systems view of life, the spontaneous emergence of order and the
dynamics of structural coupling, which results in the continual structural changes that are
characteristic of all living systems, are the basic phenomena underlying the process of
learning and the creation of knowledge in social networks is a key characteristic of the
dynamics of culture. Combining these insights and applying them to organisational
learning enables us to clarify the conditions under which learning and knowledge creation
take place and derive important guidelines for the management of todays knowledgeoriented organisations.
A study which looked at large corporations that had existed for over a hundred years,
which had survived major changes in the world around them, and which were still
flourishing with their corporate identities intact concluded that resilient, long-lived
companies are those that exhibit the behaviour and certain characteristics of living
entities. (Arie de Geus) The study identified two sets of characteristics:
1) a strong sense of community and collective identity around a set of common values; a
community in which all members know that they will be supported in their endeavours to
achieve their own goals.
2) an openness to the outside world, tolerance for the entry of new individuals and ideas,
and consequently a manifest ability to learn and adapt to new circumstances.
SUMMARY The Hidden Connections, Fritjof Capra, 2002 Chapters 1-4
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De Geus argues that the principle strategy to create these characteristics is for managers
to shift their priorities, from managing companies to optimise capital to managing
companies to optimise people - shift from viewing a company as a machine to viewing it
as a living system.
Social Networks
Living social systems are self-generating networks of communications. This means that a
human organisation will be a living system only if it is organised as a network or contains
smaller networks within its boundaries.
Many large corporations today exist as decentralised networks of smaller units. They are
also connected to networks of small and medium businesses that serve as their
subcontractors and suppliers, and units belonging to different corporations also enter into
strategic alliances and engage in joint ventures. The various parts of those corporate
networks continually recombine and interlink, cooperating and competing with one
another at the same time. Similar networks exist among non-profit and nongovernmental
organisations (NGOs) for example the environmental movement, the human rights
movement. Many of these networks transcend national boundaries. Networking has
emerged as a new form of organisation of human activity.
Communities of Practice
For an organisation to be alive, however, the existence of social networks is not sufficient;
they need to be networks of a special type. Living networks, as we have seen, are selfgenerating. Each communication creates thoughts and meaning, which give rise to further
communications. In this way, the entire network generates itself, producing a common
context of meaning, shared knowledge, rules of conduct, a boundary and a collective
identity for its members.
Etienne Wenger has coined the term communities of practice for these self-generating
social networks, referring to the common context of meaning rather than to the pattern of
organisation through which the meaning is generated. As people pursue any shared
enterprise over time they develop a common practice, that is, shared ways of doing things
and relating to one another that allow them to achieve their joint purpose. Over time, the
resulting practice becomes a recognisable bond among those involved. Wenger
He defines a community of practice as characterised by: mutual engagement of its
members, a joint enterprise and, over time, a shared repertoire of routines, tacit rules of
conduct and knowledge. In terms of Capras conceptual framework, the mutual
engagement refers to the dynamics of a self-generating network of communications, the
joint enterprise to the shared purpose and meaning, and the shared repertoire to the
resulting coordination of behaviour and creation of shared knowledge. This includes the
creation of a boundary of meaning and hence of an identity among the members of the
social network, based on a sense of belonging, which is the defining characteristic of
community. According to Arie de Geus, a strong feeling among the employees of a
company that they belong to the organisation and identify with its achievements in
other words, a strong sense of community is essential for the survival of companies in
todays turbulent business environment.
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Communities of practice invariably arise and develop within the organisations formal
structures. These are informal networks alliances and friendships, informal channels of
communication (the grapevine) and other tangled webs of relationships that continually
grow, change and adapt to new situations.
Workers organise their lives with their immediate colleagues and
customers to get their jobs done. In doing so, they develop or preserve a
sense of themselves they can live with, have some fun, and fulfil the
requirements of their employers and clients. No matter what their official
job description may be, they create a practice to do what needs to be
done. Although workers may be contractually employed by a large
institution, in day-to-day practice they work with and, in a sense, for a
much smaller set of people and communities. Etienne Wenger
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use bulletin boards, the company newsletter, a special library, off-site retreats or online
chat rooms for the same purpose. If widely publicised within the company so that support
by management is evident, these measures will liberate peoples energies, stimulate
creativity and set processes of change in motion.
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The task is to make the process of change meaningful to people right from the start, to
get their participation and to provide an environment in which their creativity can flourish.
5) Offering impulses and guiding principles rather than strict instructions amounts to
significant changes in power relations, from domination and control to cooperation and
partnerships. This, too, is a fundamental implication of the new understanding of life. In
recent years, biologists and ecologists have begun to shift their metaphors from
hierarchies to networks and have come to realise that partnership the tendency to
associate, establish links, cooperate and maintain symbiotic relationships is one of the
hallmarks of life.
Organisational Learning
In a strict sense, knowledge is created only by individuals Organisational knowledge creation, therefore,
should be understood as a process that organisationally amplifies the knowledge created by individuals and
crystallises it as a part of the knowledge network of the organisation. (Nonaka and Takeuchi)
Nonaka and Takeuchi argue that the knowledge created by individuals can be brought to
light and expanded by the organisation through social interactions. Thus, while knowledge
creation is an individual process, its amplification and expansion are social processes that
take place between individuals. If we want to succeed with knowledge management, we
must attend to human needs and dynamics..Knowledge (is not) the asset or capital.
People are. (Margaret Wheatley)
The most effective way to enhance an organisations learning potential is to support and
strengthen its communities of practice. In an organisation that is alive, knowledge
creation is natural and sharing what we have learned with friends and colleagues is
humanly satisfying. Working for an organisation that is intent on creating knowledge is a
wonderful motivator, not because the organisation will be more profitable, but because
our lives will feel more worthwhile. (Wheatley)
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This process involves several distinct stages. To begin with, there must be a certain
openness within the organisation, a willingness to be disturbed, in order to set the process
in motion; and there has to be an active network of communications with multiple
feedback loops to amplify the triggering event. The next stage is the point of instability,
which may be experienced as tension, chaos, uncertainty or crisis. At this stage, the
system may either break down, or it may break through to a new state of order, which is
characterised by novelty and involves an experience of creativity that often feels like
magic.
The initial openness to disturbances from the environment is a basic property of all life.
Living organisms need to be open to a constant flow of resources (energy and matter) to
stay alive; human organisations need to be open to a flow of mental resources
(information and ideas), as well as to the flows of energy and materials that are part of
the production of goods or services. The openness of an organisation to new concepts,
new technologies and new knowledge is an indicator of its aliveness, flexibility and
learning capabilities. The experience of the critical instability that leads to emergence
usually involves strong emotions fear, confusion, self-doubt or pain and may even
amount to an existential crisis.
After prolonged immersion in uncertainty, confusion and doubt, the sudden emergence of
novelty is easily experienced as a magical moment. Artists and scientists have often
described these moments of awe and wonder when a confused and chaotic situation
crystallises miraculously to reveal a novel idea or a solution to a previously intractable
problem. Since the process of emergence is thoroughly nonlinear, involving multiple
feedback loops, it cannot be fully analysed with our conventional, linear ways of
reasoning, and hence we tend to experience it with a sense of mystery.
In human organisations, emergent solutions are created within the context of a particular
organisational culture, and generally cannot be transferred to another organisation with a
different culture.
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Emergent structures, on the other hand, provide novelty, creativity and flexibility. They
are adaptive, capable of changing and evolving. In todays complex business
environment, purely designed structures do not have the necessary responsiveness and
learning capability. They may be capable of magnificent feats, but since they are not
adaptive, they are deficient when it comes to learning and changing.
The issue is not one of discarding designed structures in favour of the emergent ones. We
need both. In every human organisation there is a tension between its designed
structures, which embody relationships of power, and its emergent structures, which
represent the organisations aliveness and creativity. As Margaret Wheatley puts it, The
difficulties in organisations are manifestations of life asserting itself against the powers of
control. Skilful managers understand the interdependence between design and
emergence. They know that in todays turbulent business environment, their challenge is
to find the right balance between creativity of emergence and the stability of design.
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and tolerate activities in the margin: experiments and eccentricities that stretch their
understanding De Geus.
Leaders often find it difficult to establish the feedback loops that increase the
organisations connectedness. They tend to turn to the same people again and again
usually the most powerful in the organisation, who often resist change.
The experience of the critical instability that precedes emergence of novelty may involve
uncertainty, fear, confusion or self-doubt which may generate resistance to change.
Experienced leaders recognise these emotions as integral parts of the whole dynamic and
create a climate of trust and mutual support.
The problem is that people at all levels want to be told what concrete results they can
expect from the change process, while managers themselves do not know what will
emerge. During this chaotic phase, many managers tend to hold things back rather than
communicating honestly and openly, which means that rumours fly and nobody knows
what information to trust.
Good leaders will tell their employees openly and often which aspects of the change have
been established and which are still uncertain. They will try to make the process
transparent, even though the results cannot be known in advance.
During the change process some of the old structures may fall apart, but if the supportive
climate and the feedback loops in the network of communications persist, new and more
meaningful structures are likely to emerge. When that happens, people often feel a sense
of wonder and elation, and now the leaders role is to acknowledge these emotions and
provide opportunities for celebration.
Finally, leaders need to be able to recognise emergent novelty, articulate it and
incorporate it into the organisations design. Not all emergent solutions will be viable,
however, and hence a culture fostering emergence must include the freedom to make
mistakes. In such a culture, experimentation is encouraged and learning is valued as
much as success.
Since power is embodied in all social structures, the emergence of new structures will
always change power relations; the process of emergence in communities is also a
process of collective empowerment. Leaders who facilitate emergence use their own
power to empower others. The result may be an organisation in which both power and
the potential for leadership are widely distributed. This does not mean that several
individuals assume leadership simultaneously, but that different leaders step forward
when they are needed to facilitate various stages of emergence.
It is sometimes argued that the need for coherent decisions and strategies requires an
ultimate seat of power. However, many business leaders have pointed out that coherent
strategy emerges when senior executives are engaged in an ongoing process of
conversation. In the words of Arie de Geus, Decisions grow in the topsoil of formal and
informal conversation sometimes structured (as in board meetings and the budget
process), sometimes technical (devoted to implementation of specific plans or practices),
and sometimes ad hoc.
Different situations will require different types of leadership. Sometimes, informal
networks and feedback loops will have to be established; at other times people will need
SUMMARY The Hidden Connections, Fritjof Capra, 2002 Chapters 1-4
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firm frameworks with definite goals and time frames within which they can organise
themselves.
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Most corporate mergers involve dramatic and rapid structural changes for which people
are totally unprepared. Acquisitions and mergers are undertaken partly because large
corporations want to gain entry into new markets and buy knowledge or technologies
developed by smaller companies (in the mistaken belief that they can short-circuit the
learning process). Increasingly, however, the main reason for a merger is to make the
company bigger and thus less susceptible to being swallowed itself. In most cases, a
merger involves a highly problematic fusion of two different corporate cultures, which
seems to bring no advantages in terms of greater efficiency or profits, but produces
protracted power struggles, enormous stress, existential fears and thus deep distrust and
suspicions about structural change.
It is evident that the key characteristics of todays business environment global
competition, turbulent markets, corporate mergers with rapid structural changes,
increasing work loads and demands for 24/7 accessibility through e-mail and cell phones
combine to create a situation that is highly stressful and profoundly unhealthy. In this
climate it is often difficult to hold on to the vision of an organisation that is alive, creative
and concerned about the well-being of its members and of the living world at large. When
we are under stress, we tend to revert to old ways of acting. When things fall apart in a
chaotic situation, we tend to take hold and assume control. This tendency is especially
strong among managers, who are used to getting things done and are attracted to the
exercise of control.
Paradoxically, the current business environment, with its turbulences and complexities and
its emphasis on knowledge and learning, is also one in which the flexibility, creativity and
learning capability that come with the organisations aliveness are most needed. This is
now being recognised by a growing number of visionary business leaders who are shifting
their priorities toward developing the creative potential of their employees, enhancing the
quality of the companys internal communities and integrating the challenges of ecological
sustainability into their strategies. Because of the need for continuous change
management in todays turbulent environment, the learning organisations managed by
this new generation of business leaders are often very successful in spite of present
economic restraints.
In the long run, organisations that are truly alive will be able to flourish only when we
change our economic system so that it becomes life-enhancing rather than life-destroying.
This is a global issue, which I shall discuss in some detail in the following pages. We shall
see that the life-draining characteristics of the economic environment in which todays
organisations have to operate are not isolated, but are invariably consequences of the
new economy that has become the critical context of our social and organisational life.
This new economy is structured around flows of information, power and wealth in global
financial networks that rely decisively on advanced information and communication
technologies. It is shaped in very fundamental ways by machines, and the resulting
economic, social and cultural environment is not life enhancing but life degrading. It has
triggered a great deal of resistance, which may well coalesce into a worldwide movement
to change the current economic system by organising its financial flows according to a
different set of values and beliefs. The systemic understanding of life makes it clear that
SUMMARY The Hidden Connections, Fritjof Capra, 2002 Chapters 1-4
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in the coming years such a change will be imperative not only for the well-being of human
organisations, but also for the survival and sustainability of humanity as a whole.
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